Yesterday in the Common of Holy Women, Holy Men we remembered David Pendleton Oakerhater. You can read something about his life and ministry as a Deacon of and to the Cheyenne here.
I found his story to be compelling and hopeful.
Aside from who he was personally and historically, I was most captured by the collect we prayed as we remembered him. I believe it has (and probably always has had) particular importance to people who ‘live and move and have their being’ in an environment where Christianity and discipleship to Jesus Christ is the exception and not the rule. Here’s the text of the prayer.
O God of unsearchable wisdom and infinite mercy, who chose a captive warrior, David Oakerhater, to be your servant, and sent him to be a missionary to his own people and to exercise the office of a deacon among them: Liberate us, who commemorate him today, from bondage to self, and empower us for service to you and to the neighbors you have given us; through Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
There are two parts of this prayer that I believe are most applicable to God’s people (THE CHURCH) as we seek to be faithful to God’s Mission in the world here and now.
The first is this portion
O God of unsearchable wisdom and infinite mercy, who chose a captive warrior,
I want to claim that if we take our lives of discipleship with any seriousness at all we will find ourselves as ‘captive warriors’ for the Gospel we proclaim. Jesus is all about captivating hearts and sending their owners out with the zeal of a ‘warrior’. The imagery of Paul’s ‘putting on the whole armor of God’ (Romans 13:12, Ephesians 6:11 and Ephesians 6:13) lets us know that doing what we are called to do is likely to be a struggle.
We like Paul and Oakerhater have captive hearts beating within us and it is the life of God in our hearts that inspires the courage to do the loving battle of witness and evangelism (dang, I sound downright Evangelical in that sentence). Like Ignatius of Loyola and Francis of Assisi before him, warriors have a way of being converted into deep lovers of God and the peace that passes all understanding.
God is choosing us in this age to do what Oakerhater did, namely to
be a missionary to his own people.
We are smack dab in the middle of a mission field. If you doubt that for a minute, just take a look at this webpage from the Pew Forum on Religion. Did you look? Yup that’s right the states of New England–Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont occupy all but one of the bottom slots in the Poll (Alaska!).
If you feel like you’re fighting against the tide New Englanders it’s because you are! So then it seems to me that we don’t have much choice when it comes to being ‘On Mission’. That’s where we is….
The second part of the prayer that ought to speak to us as well, as an express desire of our captive hearts, is this;
Liberate us, who commemorate him today, from bondage to self, and empower us for service to you and to the neighbors you have given us;
Apparently, according to this prayer, we are to view the neighbors around us, who don’t care much for religion, not as the enemy but as gifts. More remarkably it says that we are to pray to be ‘empowered to serve’ them, not to beat them up or make them feel bad about their irrelgiosity.
This seems like tough work to me.
Dadgum!
Can’t we just choose something else to do?
It seems to me that the answer is a resounding and simple, NO. We cannot shrink from this task because it is too difficult for us. Because it is too difficult it would seem that the only choice available to us as ‘captive warriors’ is to join our efforts and hearts to the desires of God and the power of the Trinity to be faithful witnesses to God’s love and longing for each person in this disjointed and altogether too scary world.
At the end of the day, we have the ability and commission to say in the face of despair, disappointment and disillusionment that someone cares and that someone is Jesus. And that here, at this time, Jesus looks like this little community huddled around a nondescript table, sharing the simplest of meals in the unwavering hope that the Kingdom is among us and is dying to be born across the stage of the whole Creation (paraphrase Romans 8:19) by our simply being in this world.
May God make it so!
Tags: Community, Hope, Jesus, Mission, Oakerhater
I always take a deep breath in posting something about the conservative wing of the political spectrum in the United States. I am unabashedly not an adherent of the conservative worldview, by and large, and so I know that any critique I make of those who are is clouded by my own bias.
That being said, I cannot keep quiet on Fox News personality’s Glenn Beck’s comments that it is President Obama’s adherence to Liberation Theology that forms the basis of Beck’s mistrust and apparent hostility toward the President and his chosen courses of action to try and address the ills that afflict all Americans.
It seems to me that with the voice to make public comment regarding the state of affairs comes a responsibility to refrain from inflammatory and factually inaccurate rhetoric in order to make a point. This responsibility applies to Keith Olbermann as well as Mr. Beck. (Frankly I find Mr. Olbermann’s posture to be disturbing as well from time to time.)
Now that I’ve spent a few minutes on my soapbox, let me offer something that, in my view, paints a more nuanced and faithful picture to the Jesus and the Scripture upon which Liberation Theology is built.
The link here is to a piece called Glenn Beck vs. Christ the Liberator that appeared in the Huffington Post on Monday and is penned (can we really call it that in the digital age?) by Fr. James Martin, S.J. Fr. Martin is a regular contributor to Huffington (I know, not the most balanced view of things and a bit ‘leftist’) and author of The Jesuits Guide to (Almost) Everything.
I urge you to read it, not necessarily to convince you that I’m right and Glenn Beck is wrong, (though that is what I believe) but chiefly to provide background to Mr. Beck’s claim that Liberation Theology is the basis for the fundamental difference of opinion and view of what’s wrong with our country and how to fix it.
Tags: Glenn Beck, Jesus, Liberation Theology
Here’s a link to an excellent piece from the Alban Weekly from Peter Steinke.
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Proper 17
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Sermon Audio: The Rev’d Warren Hicks
Tags: Hospitality, Luke
I have to admit that I was surprised and a bit intrigued when I saw that in the Common of Holy Women, Holy Men from the Episcopal Church we were setting aside time to remember Louis, King of France today. 
I have to confess that my initial thoughts were of Louis the XIV and XV, not exactly examples of humility and piety as I remember my European History.
As the story of Louis IX unfolded however I sensed that the timing was just right for us as a Church and indeed for American Christians to pay attention to the life and example of Louis.
St. Louis was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. His succesion to the throne was in the same year as the death of Francis of Assisi. Louis was devout and sympathetic to the vision and mission of Francis in the world. So much so that it is 
reported that Louis wore a simple hair shirt underneath his royal garb to remind himself of the call to serve the poor in spirit and in truth. Louis’ humility, piety and devotion to the Franciscan way has made him the patron saint of the Third Order Franciscans, laypeople of many denominations that live a life devoted to Francis’ commitment to the poor and rebuilding the Church faithfully.
The Rev’d Sam Portaro, former Episcopal Chaplain to the University of Chicago and author of Brightest and Best: A Companion to the Lesser Feasts and Fasts writes this of the relationship between Francis and Louis in his reflection on Louis:
Both were born to wealth and position, both willingly deferred the prerogatives of privilege; the difference between the monarch and mendicant lies only in the manner of their witness and devotion. This is where the dissonance is pronounced, for while Francis embraced poverty, Louis wore the crown. Yet strange as it may seem, Louis may be for us the more applicable and the more admirable exemplar. (p. 146)
Portaro’s contention is a valid one based upon the claim that Louis path of being both blessed materially and generous spiritually is tough work. Louis was not seduced by his privilege, but rather used it as a means to address the unjust structures and challenges faced by “the least of these” referred to by Jesus in Matthew 25:31-45.
We, like Louis, have much in the way of prestige, power and clout to address the unjust structures that keep the chasm between ‘least’ and ‘most’ a yawning one. I join with Sam Portaro in calling us to face our responsibilities head on to do what we can as individuals and communities of faith to address the unjust structures of this world and the sin that creates and sustains them. We do well to remember the spirit of Luke 12:48 “from whom much is given, much will be asked.”
May we all be a visionary as Francis and as generous as Louis IX, King of France this day.
Tags: Francis, Louis IX of France
